Daily Signal News

Energy costs across the U.S. “would probably go down substantially” if the U.S. sharply increased mining and production of Alaska’s natural resources, according to Adam Crum, commissioner for the Alaska Department of Revenue.  Geographically, Alaska is by far the largest U.S. state at more than 663,000 square miles. It is also among the most natural resource-dense states in the nation.  Alaska became a state in 1959, and under its Statehood Act, it is “mandated that the mineral resources and the subsurface rights were collectivized by the state so that the state could actually collect the royalties and production taxes off of that to fund the government,” Crum explains on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” While other states, such as Texas and North Dakota, can have “individual farmers who actually have mineral rights, nobody has that in Alaska,” he said, explaining that his state was “set up to be a resource-development state since inception.”  One of the world’s largest zinc and lead mines can be found in northwes